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00:00You know, there's something about Las Vegas that changes people, and one of the main things we
00:24find is greed. There's some folklore around the Mafia's history here in Las Vegas. You hear lots of
00:32stories about bodies being buried in the desert. Out there, in the fully exposed sun, mummification
00:38occurs quickly. See a very tightly tied wire literature around the neck indicates to me
00:46someone was to come up straight behind her. And pulled it tight around her neck. Right.
00:53I just went blank. I mean, you just found out your mom's dead? When his evil came out, it was not good.
01:02This desert, it's constantly trying to kill you.
01:07I'm here in Las Vegas to meet with Detective Mark McNett about a case where the body was found
01:25mollified. And that's not something we see much in New York. It's really interesting how in different
01:32regions of the country, there are climate factors, geographic factors, sun factors that really
01:39affect a death investigation. Good morning, Barbara. Detective McNett. How are you? Glad to meet you.
01:48So I've spent a lot of time in Las Vegas, but never here. Where am I? We're in the Mount Charleston area. This is the
01:57Spring Mountain Range. This is the open desert. Thousands of miles in every direction. This is what it's like.
02:03Magnificent. But it's brutal out here. It might be 120 degrees in town, but it's 135 out here.
02:11I couldn't handle it. This desert, it's constantly trying to kill you. It's incongruous that this beauty
02:19could contain so many dark secrets. On May 28, 2008, a motorcyclist stopped on the side of the Lee
02:34Canyon Road. And he's looking down at his map, and he notices a little bit to the right of him that
02:42there's his hand sticking up through the sand. So he went to go inspect it a little closer, sees that
02:52it's a full body. He goes back up to the road, calls 911. A death investigator from the Clark County
03:01Coroner's Office is dispatched to the scene. He's going to examine and investigate the body alongside
03:08the police department. When we arrived at the scene, the body was not located very far from the roadway.
03:16There are drag marks clearly indicating that the individual was dragged from the road.
03:21There was a small dirt berm, and the body was on the other side of it.
03:30Uncovered, unburied. Uncovered, unburied.
03:38Hmm. So what did you immediately notice? What was your impression, your feeling?
03:42At a scene like this, where the body was recovered here in the desert, that's not unusual. When I saw the
03:49body, I could tell immediately that it had been out here for several days. And with the exposure to the
03:57sun and the lack of humidity, skin was blackened. The body is about 98% water.
04:05And in conditions like this, with a blazing sun and this dry heat, it literally sucks the water from the body, causing it to shrink.
04:13And then mummify.
04:15In these conditions, the biggest challenge is trying to determine time of death.
04:23Our coroner's office doesn't even give us a time of death.
04:26No, really?
04:27Because it's so variable. There are so many factors involved because of the sun and the heat. So it's the roughest approximation you can get.
04:35We don't know what the face looks like. It's decomposed. It's blackened. But we assumed it was a woman because the deceased is wearing pink pajamas and socks and has long hair.
04:52There was no identification with her. No purse, no wallet, no ID on the body.
04:59This body has two towels on it, one just loosely thrown at its feet. And around the neck, they see a towel wrapped over a very tightly tied wire ligature.
05:13The wire wrapped around the neck strongly suggests strangulation as the cause of death.
05:22There was significant horizontal marks on the neck.
05:29There was not a pull upwards toward the nape of the neck, which kind of indicates to me someone relatively her size to come up maybe straight behind her and pulled it tight around her neck.
05:43Any blood anywhere?
05:48We saw no sign of any bodily fluids with the body itself.
05:52We got the drag marks and no blood on the pajamas. So it's absolutely clear she was killed elsewhere and dumped. There was no chance that the victim was...
06:03This is definitely not where she was murdered.
06:07Most people are not out on the street in pajamas. This means that the death probably occurred inside someone's home or a hotel.
06:16In Las Vegas, you hear lots of stories about bodies being buried in the desert. It's just a very secluded location where the Mafia in the 70s were buried bodies and now MS-13 is putting bodies.
06:33Now, characteristically, a body dumped in a gully, you might start to think of, you know, mob-related, cartel-related, professional killing, but the leaving evidence behind, the wire, the towels, and the fact that the body is thrown out in the open, this is strange.
06:54For me, the most telling thing here is the position of the body. Just toss.
07:03Absolute amateur hour.
07:04Yeah.
07:05Yeah.
07:06They dragged her down here, and when they got this far, they decided, oh, this is much harder than I thought, so they just dumped it.
07:15Just rolled her over the hill.
07:16Yes.
07:16And that's that.
07:20Ruling out this was a professional hit, it could either be a random act of violence or it could be a targeted murder by someone she knew.
07:29But first, we have to identify her.
07:32The body is taken to the morgue at the coroner's office here, where we want to get our identification method.
07:42Now, fingerprints, a great way to identify someone.
07:47The finger pads are extremely desiccated, very dry, and not suitable for printing.
07:53They had to hydrate the body in order to take fingerprints off the body.
07:56We inject a compound like polyproline into the finger pad.
08:03It plumps it up, restores it almost to the pre-mortem period, and now we can get good prints.
08:11And then they're able to send those fingerprints off to the database that the FBI maintains to find out who this individual may be.
08:19They basically dragged her and then discarded her like a piece of trash.
08:27Yeah.
08:28And that, that offends me.
08:31Me too.
08:31Me too.
08:32I just.
08:32No.
08:34Yeah.
08:34That's one of the things when you get into this line of work that really kind of sinks in is, you don't get to do that.
08:46Yeah.
08:47Not on my watch.
08:48No.
08:49You don't get to do that.
08:50Careless disregard for another human being.
08:53There's.
08:53I know.
08:54Some of this stuff is enraging.
08:56Oh.
08:58Stories I could tell.
09:00I'm insulting.
09:04One of the things that homicide detectives look for was things on the body that are unique.
09:11There were tattoos at the name of Desiree and Joey on it.
09:15They appeared to be connected with kind of a leafy vine.
09:22So that would indicate somebody she's close to.
09:31If you work for the gaming or casino, you have to have your fingerprints on file.
09:37So the fingerprints come back to a woman named Maria Marino in her 50s, and she's a resident of Las Vegas.
09:47When we check with our missing persons bureau, it appears that nobody reported her missing, which in itself is rather suspicious.
10:01Usually family is very concerned, and usually they've gone to the police and talked to them.
10:06Police find out that Maria Marino was a widow with two grown children who live in Las Vegas.
10:17Detectives went out to talk to Maria's children.
10:22My name is Joey Marino, and I'm here to tell my story.
10:33It was a week after Memorial Day.
10:35We were at my sister's house having the barbecue, and there was a knock on the door.
10:39The detectives, they identified themselves as missing persons detectives.
10:47It's a ruse, as charming as we are.
10:51Some people don't want to talk to homicide detectives.
10:55He just started asking me questions about my mom, which was weird.
10:58And I was like, well, what's this all about?
11:03And they told us that her friend filed a missing persons report because she hasn't heard from her in a couple weeks.
11:10So I just went to my grandfather's house.
11:15While speaking with Desiree and Joey, the detectives learned that Maria actually lived at Al Ross' house, who is Maria's father.
11:24The house itself is a fairly large house.
11:29One would even call it a compound because there's multiple structures to it.
11:33Her father, Al, was the owner of the house.
11:36So the cop says, well, let's go check out the house.
11:40So I said, okay, I'll meet you there.
11:47I'm driving to my sister, Desiree, and I tell her, you know, I have a weird feeling.
11:51I said, something ain't right.
11:52Like, I got this knot in my stomach.
11:54So then I said, call the coroner's office.
11:58So she calls the coroner's office.
12:02And they were like, yeah, she's here.
12:05I just went blank.
12:08I mean, you just found out your mom's dead?
12:09I'm like, I don't know.
12:24My mom and my relationship was good.
12:27I could share everything with her.
12:28She was kind of like my rock.
12:29Even though Maria wasn't my biological sister, we had a close relationship.
12:36And I loved her.
12:39Maria was fun-loving.
12:42She was a kidder.
12:44Laugh.
12:45Oh, she had a great laugh.
12:47Me, my mom and my sister, Desiree, we were pretty tight.
12:52Everything she did was like from her heart.
12:53So now they're confirming that my mom is dead now, as we're pulling onto my grandfather's street.
13:03While the detectives are in Al Ross's house, Maria's residence, Desiree and Joey showed up.
13:10And my grandpa's out there just watering his plants, like a normal day.
13:17And my sister gets out of the car and starts screaming, my mom's dead, my mom's dead.
13:23And my grandpa's like, what?
13:25What are you talking about?
13:25What are you talking about?
13:26The cops have confirmed it, that my mother was killed.
13:30Al seemed very broken up about his daughter being passed away.
13:33At this point, the detectives are trying to judge each individual's reaction.
13:40to the news that Maria was murdered.
13:44And then Al lets the detectives know that he thinks the person responsible is Larry Rinker, Desiree's husband.
13:55The first thing my grandfather says is, I know Larry, Larry hurt my kid, Larry hurt my kid.
14:00So when Desiree hears that, she was like, what the hell's going on?
14:05That's crazy.
14:10Al was a little fugazi.
14:13He could go the wrong way at the blink of an eyelash.
14:19He pulled out a gun.
14:21He said, before you guys kill each other, I'll kill everybody.
14:23The vibe was wicked.
14:26He told police that an ex-girlfriend came to him looking to dispose of a body.
14:31Even for Las Vegas, the circumstances around the death of Maria Marino were very shocking.
14:45After accusing Larry Rinker of possibly committing the murder,
14:51we decided it's time to interview each of the family members individually.
14:55Maria Marino lived in kind of an interesting family dynamic.
15:02In the house, you had Maria, and then you also had her sister, Dolores, and her husband, Richard, living there as well.
15:09So sometimes you would have Dolores' daughter, Stephanie, stay there, but they were not at the residence at that time.
15:17When the detectives interviewed Desiree and Joey, they began to investigate who Larry Rinker might be.
15:24Is he a potential suspect in this case or not?
15:28My brother-in-law, Larry, Desiree's husband, he had his own trouble with the law.
15:33He made bad choices sometimes, you know?
15:34Joey told them that Larry was a stubborn person, but so was Maria and the two butted heads frequently.
15:42It made sense that my grandpa is throwing the finger at Larry,
15:46because Larry and my mom had a relationship like a love-hate.
15:49Like, they got along, but they gave each other a hard time for everything.
15:55Joey didn't think Larry was the kind of person that would be violent enough to kill somebody.
16:01As much as him and my mom butted heads, he loved her.
16:04We checked Larry's background.
16:09There was no domestic violence reports, no arrests for anything violent, but we still need more information.
16:19At that point, the police, they were still trying to figure out why there were no missing persons reports for Maria filed by the family.
16:27They asked when the last time that I saw my mom, and I haven't seen her in weeks, but I said my mom was going to be with my Aunt Roe, Rosemary, for Memorial Day.
16:37Every Memorial Day, I have barbecue at my house.
16:41My Aunt Roe, she talked to my mom that Friday for Memorial Day.
16:46She said, can I bring anything?
16:48No, don't need anything, Maria, just come.
16:50We're going to barbecue, we're going to drink, we're going to laugh.
16:54She said, I'll see you Monday.
16:56Memorial Day.
16:57No, Maria.
17:00She never showed up, and that was the last I'd spoke to her.
17:06Given the information investigators learned from talking to her family, they think Maria went missing sometime between Friday, May 23rd, and Memorial Day, May 26th, which was only two to five days before she was found.
17:20They investigate where Larry Rinker was during that time.
17:28My sister was in California with Larry and the kids when they think my mother was killed.
17:33So the focus becomes less on Larry at that point.
17:37While detectives are gathering as much information as they can, the autopsy is underway across town at the medical examiner's office.
17:46Now we look for evidence of trauma beside the strangulation.
17:55Her back is covered in bruises.
17:58Now, in order to bruise, you have to be alive.
18:01You have to have circulation.
18:04This indicated that blunt force trauma occurred at or near the time of death.
18:10At the internal examination, they discovered heavy bruising and discoloration in the strap muscles of the neck.
18:20And the hyoid bone, that was fractured, yes?
18:23Yes.
18:23Yeah.
18:24Which indicates a good amount of force.
18:27Yeah.
18:27And there were petechial hemorrhages in the eyes, so indicative of the fact that blood supply was cut off.
18:34Asphyxia by ligature strangulation.
18:37What we also noticed is that the victim is sprinkled with a white powder.
18:42It looked a lot like lye.
18:45Lye helps accelerate the decomposition of a body, making it virtually unidentifiable.
18:52There's really no reason to force a substance like that unless you're trying to get rid of the body.
18:57But you have to know what you're doing.
18:59You need about 285 gallons of lye, and you have to stir it in a huge vat and warm it up.
19:07Then the body will liquefy.
19:09The lye sprinkled on Maria's body is consumer-grade, used for gardening, which again points to an amateur killer.
19:17With all the evidence pointing toward a personal connection, investigators want to find out more about this family, starting with Maria's father, Al.
19:28They find out that Al was the patriarch of the family.
19:32He was married to my grandma, Marie.
19:35They had two kids, my mom, Maria, and my aunt, Dee, or Dolores.
19:39Police learned that Al had moved here in the 80s from New Jersey and started his own fire and safety business.
19:46He was very successful.
19:47So, everybody in the family, they kind of followed.
19:54Al had this huge house.
19:56It was gorgeous.
19:58Al had this dream that we were all going to live together and be one big happy family.
20:02Me and my cousins, we grew up in the same house.
20:05We were a stereotypical Italian-American family.
20:08Everything you've seen in the movies, that's how it was.
20:10You wake up to the old Italian music playing.
20:13Sunday dinner was pasta, macaroni meatballs, lasagna, whatever.
20:17Everybody worked in the shampoo business, and me and my cousins used to work there in the summertime.
20:23Al was a good businessman, but he also had the propensity for being a little fugazi,
20:32meaning Al could go the wrong way at the blink of an eyelash if it was to his advantage.
20:40And when his evil came out, it was not good.
20:47But my grandfather, he had the dark side.
20:49He pulled guns out of his family members.
20:51And I've seen him threaten people and just crazy .
20:55There was one instance, I couldn't be more than 12 years old, and we were having dinner
21:00or something.
21:01My mom and my aunt got in a fight, and all I remember is my grandpa saying,
21:05I'll shoot everybody in this house.
21:09And he pulled out a gun and he pointed at my mom and my aunt.
21:12He said, before you guys kill each other, I'll kill everybody.
21:14Just a couple of hours into the investigation at the Marino compound,
21:29police have learned that Maria Marino's father, Al, runs the family with an iron fist,
21:35even to the point of threatening them with violence.
21:38So, police are now looking at him as a possible suspect.
21:44The police were trying to figure out if Al's house, which was a family compound,
21:48could have been the location where the murder occurred.
21:51And to do that, police wanted to search inside.
21:55Al barks and says, no, you're going to have to get a warrant.
22:00A family member that becomes very uncooperative, it appears suspicious.
22:08Why do you not want us to solve this case?
22:13So, police were able to secure a search warrant from a judge to go into the residence.
22:19The police were trying to see if they could tie some of the physical evidence
22:23at the scene where her body was dumped to the actual home.
22:26They're also going to look for blood, broken doors, broken furniture,
22:32anything to indicate where the struggle might have occurred.
22:37They're searching the house.
22:38We're just sitting there.
22:39We have no idea what's going on.
22:41It didn't feel real.
22:43While they're doing the search, Maria's sister, Dolores,
22:47and her husband, Richard, show up at the house.
22:52Andy and my uncle, Rick, they're just like, what's going on?
22:54What's going on?
22:55So, my sister said, my mom is dead.
23:02Dee goes into her panic.
23:04Oh, my God, my sissy, my sissy.
23:06That's what she called her sissy.
23:07Where's my sissy, my sissy?
23:12Detectives questioning them about when the last time they saw Maria was,
23:17they said Maria kind of kept to herself,
23:20and they didn't keep track of her coming and goings.
23:22The police don't find any broken speaker wires or any type of indication of a struggle.
23:29The police search for physical evidence.
23:32They look for latent blood, and they don't find anything.
23:38It's not unusual not to find blood.
23:40Maria had been dead about a week.
23:43And if this is the primary crime scene, it gave people in the house plenty of opportunity to clean up.
23:49And then they do a search of Al's car.
23:53They find white towels.
23:56They're the same brand, the same size, the same color as the towels on the body.
24:02As detectives wait to see if the lab can connect the towels,
24:08they take a deeper dive into Maria's relationship with her father and the other members of the family.
24:15But after the search of the residents, Al and the rest of the family, quite frankly,
24:21became more hostile to detectives and refused to actually talk to them anymore,
24:27except for Joey and Desiree.
24:30We branch out to any other contacts, friends and family members, for information.
24:35We discovered that Maria was the favorite daughter, if you will,
24:41from all indications, like the good girl.
24:45Maria was the first daughter.
24:48And in an Italian family, that's a big deal.
24:53Maria's father, he trusted Maria.
24:57They were like best friends.
24:58They would go do everything together.
25:00They would go to the casino, so like, hear like the lounge band.
25:03She was the one that Al entrusted with the business.
25:07She was the one that Al entrusted with the money for the family.
25:11She would do stuff around the business, mostly maintain the books and other items as well.
25:16My grandfather Al trusted my mom Maria with his life, literally.
25:21He was always just being difficult with the police,
25:24because he went into like dad mode at that point to try to protect his family.
25:29Al clearly cared for her a lot.
25:31This leans towards the assumption that he probably isn't the person responsible for her death.
25:37So, that wasn't even a thought in my mind.
25:39Now, we started to look at the relationship between Maria and her sister, Dolores.
25:48They always had a contentious relationship from a very young age.
25:54Dolores was the one that was kind of a wild child when she was younger.
25:58She always claimed that, oh, you love Maria more.
26:02Didi's full of contention with Maria was, why do you have access to daddy's money?
26:09And, given the rivalry, it could have fostered even more jealousy and resentment.
26:18They had like this love-hate relationship. It was weird.
26:20Like, one day they'd be best friends, and then the next minute it was,
26:24they were at each other's throats, literally. It was crazy.
26:26The vibe was wicked.
26:29I mean, when Dolores was around, everyone had, like, and the hair on their arms would stand up.
26:38Could Dolores have snapped and killed her own sister?
26:41Absolutely.
26:42After learning that Maria and her sister, Dolores, were constantly at odds,
26:53investigators focused on finding out more about her sister.
26:59We have a lot more questions about Dolores.
27:07I remember when the cops were questioning all of us.
27:10I'm looking at D, and, like, she starts with her theatrics.
27:14And, like, something isn't right here.
27:17We discovered that Dolores and her husband Richard had a criminal history.
27:22What they were able to find is that, in fact,
27:24they had had interaction with the criminal justice system.
27:27Not overly major, a lot of kind of petty crimes.
27:33The lifestyle here in Las Vegas isn't for everybody.
27:36From the 24 hours, to the gambling, to the alcohol everywhere.
27:39Like, I've seen that chew people up and spit people out.
27:42But I think that's what happened to my aunts and Rick.
27:44Drugs just got a hold of them.
27:46Maria did not want Dolores living with her.
27:49She didn't trust her.
27:51She would go into Maria's room, steal money.
27:55Just crappy stuff.
27:59I didn't want that life.
28:01I wanted something to do better for myself.
28:02I'll try to keep the peace, but when my mom curses at my aunt,
28:07or my aunt stole something from my mom,
28:09or they're fighting and my grandpa threatened to shoot everybody in the house,
28:12like, you know, like, it's, it got bad.
28:15It got bad.
28:16He wanted everybody to be happy, but at the end of the day, you couldn't.
28:19Even though friends and family describe the contentious dynamics in the household,
28:28investigators still don't have any evidence that it connects to Maria's murder.
28:34At that point, the lab results start coming in for the towels found in Al Ross' vehicle.
28:40The police have textile experts, manufacturing experts in the trace evidence and forensic labs
28:48that can match and see, do these towels belong together?
28:52No.
28:54The towels were not a match to the towels found on Maria.
28:59No other physical evidence at the house was found that would indicate that this could be
29:05the primary scene where the murder actually occurred.
29:07There are two main components in every homicide case.
29:12There's witness information and physical evidence.
29:16So, in the lack of physical evidence, you have to build up that witness information as much as you can.
29:31So, sometimes in an investigation, the police will get information that maybe some people would call tips.
29:36Sometimes they talk about how the streets are talking.
29:39There's information that's floating out there.
29:43Someone named James Ray reached out to officers at the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department
29:49with some information about a murder.
29:53James Ray is a junkyard owner here in Las Vegas.
29:57He has a lengthy criminal history.
30:00He did 10 years for RICO.
30:01James Ray told police that an ex-girlfriend of his son came to him looking to dispose of a body.
30:15James Ray said there was a discussion that she had with him about how the body was in the trunk of her BMW
30:22and how there was a lie or something that was poured on the body to try to make it difficult to identify her.
30:31James said he turned her away.
30:34The scenario that James Ray refused to help get rid of the body is plausible,
30:38since the body evidence points to an amateur, not someone with mob experience like him.
30:45A couple of days later, they met up again when she told James that they dumped the body
30:51on Mount Charleston, which is around where Maria's body was found.
30:57Specifically in a point from the investigation,
31:03James said that this person said that this individual was killed using a wire.
31:10Something that detectives and officers never mentioned to James Ray.
31:15James knew of certain key things in this case that the police didn't release to the press.
31:20That makes this information more credible.
31:23James Ray knows something about the murder.
31:27They pressure him to give up the name of the woman who approached him.
31:32James Ray said that this individual is a person named Stephanie,
31:36and homicide detectives were able to connect Stephanie to Stephanie Petruzino,
31:42Dolores' daughter.
31:43James Ray, who owns a junkyard here in Las Vegas, comes forward with information.
31:58He had been approached by his son's ex-girlfriend, Stephanie Petruzino.
32:03She was looking for help, trying to get rid of that body.
32:07When James Ray told the detectives the information he had,
32:12this is their first real lead to indicate the person responsible for Maria's death.
32:19They immediately start focusing on Stephanie.
32:23Stephanie with the adult daughter of Dolores, Maria Marino's sister.
32:28My cousins, Stephanie and her brother, Bobby, were like my brothers and sisters,
32:35because we grew up in the same house.
32:37I don't have any brothers, so my cousin Bobby was my brother.
32:40Same thing with Stephanie.
32:41You know, she was like a sister to me.
32:43And my mom and Stephanie were close.
32:47Detectives learned that Stephanie was involved in a lot of previous drug offenses.
32:51She had a history that included violent crimes as well.
32:56In fact, when this case was filed, she was on parole for a conspiracy to commit robbery.
33:03Stephanie lived a somewhat transient lifestyle and would live at Al's house,
33:07but then would go disappear.
33:10And Al said she was no longer living there, and he doesn't know where she was living.
33:13Nobody knew where Stephanie was.
33:22I don't even think that Dolores knew where she was at that particular time.
33:28Eventually, detectives were able to locate Stephanie, and she agreed to an interview.
33:35Detectives confront her with the statements made by James Ray.
33:39She denied being involved in killing her aunt.
33:43She seemed upset.
33:46Stephanie, it says that she needed to have a smoke.
33:49They went outside.
33:51At that point, Stephanie just took off walking.
33:55They called out to her.
33:57She just took off, disappeared.
34:05We had James Ray in the story about Stephanie,
34:09but they didn't believe that was enough to arrest her
34:12because you were relying on the word of a multiple-time felon.
34:16We were still trying to gather information,
34:19but Dolores and Richard refused to talk to detectives
34:22at any point during the course of the investigation.
34:26This is very frustrating
34:27because you don't have any physical evidence connecting her to Maria's murder.
34:41The year after Maria died,
34:44I felt the clues were there.
34:48The only thing that was missing was who did it and when.
34:56My grandpa Al was just catatonic, blank.
35:01Like, lights on, nobody's home.
35:02I know he was hurting and he was torn up.
35:05My sister was a wreck.
35:07We were calling the detectives, you know,
35:09sometimes two or three times a day.
35:11But after two or three years,
35:13I lost hope.
35:15The reason why the detectives still didn't arrest her at the time
35:18is the district attorney's office didn't believe
35:20and they didn't believe they had enough
35:22in order to have a successful prosecution.
35:23Now, with this lack of evidence,
35:27the case goes cold for three years.
35:32With the passage of time,
35:34the police are still looking at Dolores' daughter,
35:38Stephanie Petruzzino.
35:39There's Dolores Pinardo because of her criminal history.
35:43And there was a tension between Dolores and Maria
35:46that there's Bobby Petruzzino, the son of Dolores.
35:49He has a criminal history as well.
35:51At the time of Maria's murder,
35:54Bobby was actually in prison.
35:57The detectives had spoke to Bobby previously,
36:00but he was reluctant to speak with them.
36:04Since Bobby couldn't have physically been involved in the murder,
36:07early on he wasn't pressed for information.
36:10But now detectives begin to wonder
36:12if maybe one of his family members
36:14could have possibly spilled some information to Bobby about Maria.
36:18And so the police were digging in
36:21and were able to determine that
36:22in late May of 2008,
36:24when he was in custody,
36:26there was this log of prison phone calls.
36:29Detectives acquired phone calls
36:31made by Bobby Petruzzino
36:32to his mother, Dolores,
36:34while he was in the prison.
36:35So Dolores is talking in code,
36:56and Bobby retorts right away,
36:59you mean Maria?
37:05The police were able to connect phone calls
37:20between Bobby Petruzzino
37:22and his mother, Dolores,
37:23from around the time of Maria's murder.
37:27In the call itself,
37:28Dolores indicates that their common problem
37:32wasn't going to be a problem for them anymore.
37:35There's a clear indication
37:36that Bobby understands who she's talking about.
37:39That thing happened, eh?
37:41Please tell us everything is fine.
37:46After that phone call was recorded,
37:49Bobby got out of custody
37:51and was living at Al's house with Dolores.
37:54The police wanted to figure out
37:56specifically what Dolores told him
37:58after that jail phone call.
38:01Now, at this point in 2011,
38:02Bobby's actually back in prison.
38:05His wife was pregnant,
38:06and so there was motivation
38:08to be able to be with his child.
38:11So the police go to Bobby,
38:13and now he's willing
38:15to give more information.
38:17Bobby wanted to get out of prison,
38:19so he started singing like a bird.
38:22So he comes forward with details
38:24about what actually happened
38:25when Maria was killed.
38:28We believe,
38:30based on Bobby Petruzino's interview,
38:33that Maria was going to basically
38:36cut Dolores out financially
38:39from their family business.
38:41There was a physical fight
38:43in Al's house.
38:44The two sisters,
38:46Maria and Dolores,
38:46were fighting.
38:48Dolores grabbed a fire extinguisher
38:49and hit Maria with it,
38:51which rendered her disabled.
38:55Dolores calls out for Stephanie.
38:57Bobby tells detectives
39:01that when Stephanie came into the room,
39:04her mother, Dolores,
39:05begged her to finish off Maria.
39:09Stephanie grabbed a speaker wire,
39:12wrapped it around Maria's neck,
39:14and started strangling her hands.
39:17Stephanie strangled Maria to death.
39:20The blunt force trauma
39:25and the ligature strangulation.
39:27This story confirms
39:28what we found on the body.
39:31Dolores was able
39:32to convince her husband, Richard,
39:34to help load the body
39:35into a vehicle.
39:39Stephanie drove around
39:40with this body
39:41for a couple of days,
39:43trying to find someone
39:44to help her dispose of the body.
39:45Eventually, Richard decides
39:47to drive out there
39:48to Mount Charleston.
39:50He drags the body out
39:51about 14 feet into the ravine
39:54and dumps it there.
39:55They poured gardening lye
39:58on the body
39:59in an attempt
40:00to destroy evidence.
40:02Even for Las Vegas,
40:05the circumstances
40:06around the death
40:07of Maria Moreno
40:08were very shocking.
40:11It was Bobby Petruzzino's
40:13interview that showed
40:14both Dolores' and Stephanie's guilt
40:16as well as Richard's guilt.
40:22In December of 2012,
40:25a arrest warrant is issued
40:27for Dolores Bernardo,
40:29Stephanie Petruzzino,
40:30and Richard Bernardo.
40:32When you know
40:33the circumstances
40:34of the death,
40:37like this poor woman,
40:39what she went through,
40:42it just,
40:43you want to hurt somebody.
40:46That's how I felt.
40:47No one deserved that.
40:51I was pissed.
40:52I was furious.
40:53I was disappointed
40:54in Dee and Rick and Stephanie.
40:57The motive in this
40:58was greed and jealousy.
40:59At the end of the day,
41:00this was because
41:01Maria controlled them
41:02money.
41:02Dolores wanted more access
41:04to the money,
41:05and Maria refused to do so.
41:07I imagine for Al,
41:10it was terrible.
41:12Terrible.
41:14You know,
41:15I don't have many cases
41:17where family members
41:18kill each other.
41:19It's unusual.
41:20So for a mother-daughter duo,
41:23for Dolores and Stephanie
41:25to kill their sister,
41:28their aunt,
41:29over what money?
41:32So unnecessary.
41:36So Richard Bernardo
41:38pled guilty
41:38to accessory to murder
41:40and conspiracy
41:41to commit murder,
41:42and a two-to-five-year prison sentence
41:45was what he received.
41:48Dolores Bernardo
41:49pled guilty
41:50to voluntary manslaughter,
41:52and she received
41:53six to 16 years
41:55in prison.
41:57Stephanie Petrozzino
41:58took a plea deal
41:59for second degree
42:00with use of a deadly weapon.
42:02And so she's doing
42:0313 years to life.
42:07And it took everything
42:08to me not to just
42:09tear them apart.
42:13To cause them the pain
42:14that I was feeling
42:15that my kids were going to feel,
42:16that everybody else felt.
42:18It took everything
42:19to me not to do that.
42:20It took a long time,
42:24but they got
42:25who they needed to get.
42:28To me,
42:29and anybody else
42:30who knew my mom,
42:32she was that person
42:33you could always call on
42:34no matter what,
42:35and she would be there.
42:37And I tried to teach that
42:38to my sons.
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